Daredevil (2003)

**Daredevil is cheesy but trying to be serious while dripping in 2000s grunge. It isn’t a masterpiece, but it was a solid superhero film for its time.**
Daredevil (2003) falls prey to a lot of judgment from people who have spent over a decade with Marvel films and The Dark Knight trilogy, but rewind to a time when Blade, X-Men, and Tobey Macguire’s Spider-man were all you had for superhero films, and you might start to see Daredevil for what it was. It was a genuine product of its time - Seether and Evanescence heavily featured on the soundtrack, leather superhero suits, and ridiculous dialogue. Everything was so cheesy in superhero movies at the time - don’t forget that Catwoman came out just a year later. Daredevil tried to be more edgy and gritty than Spider-man at a time when most people still considered superhero movies as kids’ films. It had a lot going against it but still brought together a fantastic cast with Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell at a very popular time in their careers and Jennifer Garner while she was one of the biggest stars on TV. This movie even managed to spawn a spin-off film! Say what you want, but when I saw this movie in 7th grade, I thought Daredevil was one of the coolest superheroes I had ever seen, and even though years later I can see the movie more for what it is - it still holds a special place in my heart.

It's not just that Daredevil is a poorly made movie. It's that it takes a great character and turns him into a mishmash of tired clichés, shamelessly copying The Crow, Spider-Man, The Matrix, as well as both Burton and Schumacher's Batman in an attempt to appeal to the teen angst crowd. Don't blame Ben Affleck. He does what he can but the script and terrible production design lets him down as much as it us.